Daric - Artaxerxes I / Darius III THE ROYAL COINAGE - 4th type

The fourth-type daric spans the long decline of Achaemenid power, struck continuously through the reigns of multiple kings from Artaxerxes I through Darius III — the last Persian king before Alexander's conquest rendered the entire monetary system obsolete. Athenian mercenaries were paid in darics throughout the fifth and fourth centuries, and Persian gold was explicitly used to finance Spartan naval campaigns against Athens during the Peloponnesian War. The daric was, in effect, a geopolitical instrument.

Darius III was still issuing this type when he fled Gaugamela in 331 BC. Alexander subsequently melted captured Persian treasury stocks — including vast quantities of darics — to fund his own coinage at Susa and Persepolis.